UNIONS MADE THE DIFFERENCE

Working people made our voices heard in the 2018 midterm elections. Together, we knocked on 2.3 million doors and made a half a million phone calls in support of the labor-endorsed candidates who will advocate for working families.

An ideologically divided Supreme Court ruled Monday that companies may require workers to settle employment disputes through individual arbitration rather than joining to press their complaints, a decision affecting as many as 25 million workers.

The court's conservative majority said that the 5-to-4 ruling was a logical reading of federal law, and Congress' preference for using arbitration to avoid costly and time-consuming litigation.

President Trump’s attention of late has been focused in part on the United States Postal Service and Amazon, resulting in a new executive order calling for an evaluation of USPS finances. This is a good opportunity to underscore some important facts regarding the Postal Service, a national treasure belonging to all the people of the United States.

It only takes a moment talking to Emily Galvin, an apprentice with Ironworkers Local 7 in Boston, to grasp how her first year learning the skilled trades has transformed her life. For one, she has a fresh understanding of the anatomy of a city—of roads, bridges and buildings. She’s taking classes in structural steel, tension, rebar and labor history. “I love how we use mats of rebar,” Ms. Galvin says, “to make reinforced concrete for floors or knee-walls, like for a parking garage.”

Happy nurses week! It’s the time of year when our employers honor us for the hard work we do every day, healing and saving lives. While we hear the words of gratitude that come our way this time of year, we also know what would REALLY make nurses feel appreciated by our employers: workplace protections, dignity, and respect.

To that end, NNU’s mighty nurses marked the week by standing up, loud and proud, for a healthier workplace and a healthier world. Check out how we celebrated, nurse-power style:

Tefere Gebre came to the United States in 1984 as a teenager. He and four friends had left their home in war-torn Ethiopia and walked nearly 500 miles across the desert to a refugee camp in Sudan. He was eventually granted asylum as a political refugee and came to the United States by himself, without parents. He settled in Los Angeles, where he learned English and became an advocate for workers’ rights.

When it comes to appreciating educators, please heed an old expression: Walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk. As the head of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers, I know first-hand that educators go into our profession because they want to make a difference in students’ lives. They need real investments in teaching and learning, like books, supplies, and smaller class sizes; a voice in what happens in their schools; and latitude in their classrooms so they can tailor their teaching to meet the needs of their students.

Longtime labor activist and leader Maria Elena Durazo is a familiar and beloved name to hundreds of thousands of union members and working people. She is vice president for UNITE HERE International Union, which represents more than 270,000 hospitality workers in the U.S. and Canada. And for almost a decade, 2006-2015, she was the first woman elected secretary-treasurer of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, representing the interests of more than 300 local unions.